A day after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had informed the Lok Sabha that the Doklam face-off was handled maturely and there had been no change in the status quo, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged that Ms. Swaraj “buckled and prostrated herself in front of Chinese power.”
Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, hit back by claiming that the Congress president was “ignorant of facts.”
“Amazing how a lady like Sushma ji has buckled and prostrated herself in front of Chinese power. Absolute subservience to the leader means our brave jawan has been betrayed on the border,” Mr. Gandhi tweeted using the hashtag #Doklam. The Congress chief also tagged a media report on U.S. Congresswoman Ann Wagner’s claim that China had quietly resumed its activities in the Doklam area without any resistance from Bhutan or India.
U.S. claims
Ms. Wagner had made the claim during last week’s Congressional hearing of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee for Asia-Pacific. Such a claim, however, was denied by New Delhi. Mr. Rijiju took to twitter to target the Congress president.
“His tweet is one classic example of how Rahul Gandhi ji is not only ignorant of facts but depicts how he takes political soundbites as more important than national interest. Don’t some senior Congress ex-Ministers brief him about sensitivities?” tweeted Mr. Rijiju.
On Thursday, Ms. Swaraj had told the Lok Sabha that the main purpose of the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan was to ensure mutual comfort, understanding and trust between the two neighbours and and all the objectives had been achieved.